shimmer
by moonvalentine32
Summary: Neji never thinks he'll fall for someone like Tenten, until he does.


_gave my love to a shooting star_

 _but she moves so fast that i can't keep up_

 _i'm chasing_

 _._

 _._

 _._

* * *

Neji couldn't have possibly cared less about the uncivilized excuses for ninja-in-training at the academy. Impatiently suffering through his days in school, he always counted down the seconds until he could train in the presence of people with actual skill.

One afternoon during lunch break, he passed by a group of girls on his way back into the building. They all twittered and gushed over him as he got closer, so naturally, he disregarded them without so much as an accidental glance—

Until, that is, a hand gripped his ankle and sent him face-first into the ground. The air whooshed out of him in a strangled yelp as he hit the dirt, which then flew up to coat his pale eyeballs.

There was a dense beat of silence before the girls broke out in scandalized whispers. Neji swiftly pushed himself off the ground, a growl of hot anger lodged beneath his sternum. How _dare_ someone treat him with such flippancy, such _blatant_ disrespect!—if he hadn't been so utterly furious, he would have kept walking and ignored his attacker altogether.

Instead, he turned with eyes red with irritation and debris to face the offender. All he found was a girl staring straight at him, one eye winked closed and her tongue sticking out between her teeth.

When she snickered at his dirty face, he barely resisted the urge to rip those stupid buns from her head, instead choosing to storm over to the outdoor hose to rinse off. He'd teach her a lesson one of these days, he was sure.

* * *

They didn't have to deal with each other again until they were assigned to the same team. The three of them had to be the most absurd combination the academy had ever produced.

Clearly Tenten had it out for Neji; Neji already despised this Tenten girl; they both were instantly repulsed by their teacher and his miniature clone. Lee could only handle taijutsu, and even then he was hardly passable. Tenten and Neji's skills were on opposite ends of the spectrum—his powers lied internally, while hers were almost solely external. It was ridiculous, and Gai-sensei loved every minute of it.

Tenten and Neji avoided each other like the plague for the first few days, but there were only so many ' _seize the day!'_ s and green jumpsuits that two rational beings could take before an unspoken, reluctant camaraderie formed _._ When Rock Lee and their teacher began challenging each other, Tenten and Neji were left to their own devices until the other two gave up—which sometimes took days on end.

It wasn't easy to get along, though, when Neji could _swear_ there was some dirt still lingering in his eyes. He brushed off her compliments on his fighting prowess, turned his nose against her questions on his byakugan. And he most absolutely did not get annoyed whatsoever when she eventually learned to ignore him too.

Gai gleefully forced the two to start sparring for training purposes. It began pretty smoothly with solid strategies and clean hits. Neji smirked arrogantly the entire time they fought, knowing he had the advantage and that this little girl had nothing on the powers of his kekkei genkai.

He'd thought he had an opening to end it all in one blow, but when he moved to strike, she disappeared. Before he could whip around or use his byakugan to find her, he felt arms constrict around his neck.

"Gotcha," Tenten whispered in his ear, her breath cooling as it rolled beneath his collar, and then she snipped the tip of his ponytail off with her kunai.

Gai and Lee hollered, heartily congratulating her win as she beamed a radiant, satisfied smile; in her hand was a fistful of silky dark hair.

"Nice job," Neji said indifferently. He could acknowledge her as an opponent and teammate with potential, but he most certainly would not acknowledge the goosebumps erupting on his arms.

* * *

On their third extended mission, Tenten took her hair down.

She'd decided, smartly, to bathe after Gai and Lee had fallen asleep, their snores reverberating through the forest and destroying any hopes of staying discreet.

Neji was perched on a lower branch of a pine tree to keep watch, reading a book in what soft moonlight he could utilize through the leaves above him. He didn't realize she was awake until she tiptoed back to the camp, her silhouette skewed in the dim light of the fire's dying embers. It was hard to tell it was his teammate at first; if she hadn't been wearing her usual outfit, he would have thought her a thief or ninja attempting a lone raid.

She bent down to rummage through her pack and grab a hairbrush. Water dripped from the ends of her hair as she combed through it. Droplets hissed quietly on the warmed ground by the fire. Dark tresses hung over her shoulders and down her back, and in their dampened state they shone like glass, a brilliant orange hue from the flames only feet away from her.

Tenten tucked her hair behind her ears and moved to do something else—Neji wasn't quite sure what it was until she turned to wave politely, almost shyly, at him. His tongue was suddenly stuck to the roof of his mouth.

The sight wasn't necessarily a shock to him because she looked particularly breathtaking or beautiful, but rather because she looked like a different person altogether.

There was a delicate quality to her face when it was framed by her hair, and her eyes looked about twice their usual size, melted chocolate irises surrounded by black lashes stuck together from her bath. The heat of the campfire put some color in her skin, the rosy flush creeping up over her cheekbones and temples where her freckles faded into clear skin, tan over her nose and forehead from all their time outdoors. Shorter pieces of bangs had fallen forward to stick to her dark brows.

Then, before he could even so much as nod in response, Tenten whirled around to face the fire, shaking her hair away from her neck and settling into her bed roll for the night. A small sliver of skin was visible between her hair and the collar of her t-shirt. Without good reason, Neji's eyes traced the curve of her shoulder where it met her neck several times before she rolled further into her pillow, successfully obscuring everything but the back of her head.

He gulped and saliva crackled as it coated the desert of his throat. An odd feeling coursed through his system, gripping the muscles in his arms and hands and hollowing his stomach.

It wasn't that she was pretty—that much he knew. He hardly gave girls a fleeting thought. She'd just looked vulnerable in her own way, and he'd been the only one to see it. It was the first opportunity he'd had to see her fully, without her haughty, blood-boiling smirk or the snarl she sported in battle, and the surprise of it had thrown him off. That was all.

Neji hid behind his book for the rest of the night, not even bothering to wake Gai up for his pre-dawn watch shift.

* * *

Tenten didn't just get defeated in the chuunin exams—she'd been _obliterated._

Neji hadn't noticed how tense the fight had been until hours after he'd won his own. If the deep purple finger-shaped marks on his bicep were any indication, it was more nerve-wracking than he initially understood.

When she woke up after two days, her first words were mumbled around a frown.

"Neji…why are your arms bruised?" It was asked less with concern and more with genuine confusion, and if he wasn't mistaken, a slight edge of condescension.

He shrugged nonchalantly while Lee took it upon himself to make up a more exciting story about the valiant, intense Hyuuga battle. Their teammate had been looking for some fun ever since he'd been confined to a wheelchair, no thanks to those ruthless Suna kids.

"Neji-san endured the effects of an _excellent_ battle with his fellow clan member! A formidable foe indeed, but our mighty Neji embraced the power of youth and took only a few quick hits before defeating Hinata-san!" Neji had turned his nose up and away from her, but his misty gaze still shifted to gauge her reaction from the corner of his eye. He didn't want her getting any false ideas about him. For once, the exaggerated truth sounded better coming from their enthusiastic green-clad teammate.

The look on her face made it evident she didn't believe a word Lee said—more so than usual.

"Uh huh," she said from the side of her mouth, a smile playing at the corner of her lips, and Neji's heart skipped a beat inside his painfully tight chest.

* * *

The next hospital trip was his, only months after his battle against Naruto. He'd been too careless with his chakra usage in a surprise battle against missing-nin. Gai and Lee were off fighting elsewhere, and he and Tenten had been ambushed by an exceptionally large group of ninja with no small amount of jutsu to wield. It had taken all of his efforts to incapacitate them enough for Tenten to defeat and capture the targets.

He woke up in a haze of antiseptic and stiffly starched sheets, and after a moment of adjusting to the fluorescent lights, he sensed something strange. A soapy smack lingered in the air, overwhelming his swollen throat and nasal passages. His face felt as though it had been coated in someone else's skin, craggy and dry and unfortunately _very_ itchy.

A mangled wheeze managed to squeak its way from his throat as his head moved to survey the rest of the room. Somehow, unsurprisingly, Tenten was sitting next to him, close enough to make his neck coil back into his pillow.

Neji felt a tug in his scalp and realized after a glance that she was braiding a small section of his hair, all the while biting her lip to keep from laughing. He looked at the ceiling instead of the tiny indentation of teeth marks just outside the line of her mouth.

"What—" The word caught on a dry patch deep in his trachea and he huffed out a rather undignified cough. He ignored Tenten's hum of amusement. "What do you think you're doing?" Somehow, the sentence was finished audibly, if with only slightly more integrity than tissue paper.

"Making you look pretty," she sang before another stifled laugh. "Just kidding. I got bored, and you have a lot of hair, so…"

The words _so do you_ sat impatiently on his tongue, but he caught himself before they leapt out, annoyed that he still remembered the time he'd seen her without her buns.

"Stop," he tried to demand firmly, but it sounded more like a balloon releasing air. What on Earth had injured him so badly he could barely talk?

The answer came when he saw a daisy, held by its thin green stem between Tenten's ungloved fingers, its sunny yellow center deceptively cheerful beneath the hospital's harsh lights. A sigh groaned its way out his nose.

He closed his eyes, willing down the flare of irritation building behind his eyes. Or maybe that was just another unscratched itch.

"Why did you bring those abominable things into this room?" Neji muttered through his teeth.

"Oh," Tenten tucked the flower into the dip between braided strands, "Ino suggested these when I went to pick up some get-well flowers. _Some_ of us have a sense of hospitality, you know."

"Ino?" He lifted a speculative brow, having no idea who they were, but refused to open his eyes.

A snort sounded, and then, "That girl you blew off during the chuunin exams, Mr. _Ice Cold?_ "

"Ah." He hardly remembered the girl, other than recalling the irony of a Yamanaka clan member who was literally brainless. "Stupid girl, then, for recommending these, since I'm highly allergic to them." There was an edge in his tone he could hardly attempt to veil in his current state.

There was a pause, and then Tenten gasped with such awe that Neji couldn't help but open an eye. All he saw was her expression dissolve into a fit of laughter. After a moment, she was wheezing worse than he, and he even had an inkling of concern that she might fall out of the flimsy fold-out chair.

"Oh, lord, no _wonder!_ " the girl wailed, most likely waking up and disturbing half the other patients in the building, but definitely disturbing him the most. Much to his pleasure, she stood with a screech of wood against linoleum and left the room, forearm draped weakly over her stomach.

Neji closed his eyes again and ground his teeth, relieved of her presence. This was why he despised women like Ino. Petty, vengeful girls who were too unintelligent to see how far out of his league they were.

He thought he'd achieved some silence once and for all to rest again, until he heard not seconds later down the hall, "…and get this—he can rupture someone's internal organs without touching them, but he's allergic to _flowers!_ And he can't even look mad because of all the _hives!_ "

A chorus of feminine giggles erupted after Tenten's declaration, and he knew then that he didn't just hate certain women, he hated _all_ women, especially ones who lived to snip away at what few threads of patience he kept intact.

He ignored the sputtered laugh of the nurse who came to give him some water and a heavy antihistamine, trying not to hate her as much when he slipped into a black sleep with calmed skin.

It was more than could be said for Tenten. She still hadn't removed the offending daisies from his braided locks when he woke up later that evening.

* * *

With each passing day, Neji was convinced Tenten lived to challenge him.

Not just physically, during their sparring and training together, but also mentally. His tolerance wore thinner and thinner as the hours of their missions ticked by. Neji was not the reactive kind, but around her, it seemed impossible to reel in the waves of agitation that were sometimes so intense it brought angry sweat to his temples.

At first, he wondered if it was because after dealing with Gai and Lee, who were specially crafted to get on his last nerve, he hardly had the mental resolve to deal with much else beyond his duties as a shinobi and member of the Hyuuga clan. His pride extended past his powers; Neji had a job to do, and no matter the situation he was required to fulfill it. It was of his own volition that he was proud and sure of his skills more than anything else.

Tenten, however, seemed to not only be aware of this, but found ways to tease him mercilessly for it. No matter how much she praised him, or even how much she claimed to look up to him, he had known from the moment she tripped him on the Academy playground that she lived to taunt him, to piss him off, to make him push himself just to spite her smug little self. It was a weird game she loved to play, trying to throw him off. Almost as if to remind him he wasn't so far above the rest of his team simply because of his advanced rank or clan status.

One mission in particular Neji had _not_ been ready for. The task was simple enough—gather information, attack if necessary. The three of them were on their own, without Gai, something they'd gotten used to with a slightly disturbing lack of hard feelings (excluding Lee, of course).

They launched through the forest nearing the border of Fire Country. Soon they'd be closing in on their targets: Sound ninja posing as guards at a medical outpost to kidnap unwitting shinobi, most likely for experimental use by Orochimaru.

"Perhaps it's time to begin scouring the area?" Lee piped over the rush of wind as they ran. The sound carried back to Neji, who was holding up the rear. Though he was the designated team leader, he deigned to respond to Lee's hesitant command with a simple "yes, perhaps."

The Hyuuga activated his byakugan, and in a short familiar burst of chakra, he saw the world in black and white. He concentrated on sweeping two kilometers or so around where they pounced through the trees, finding no signatures behind him other than an old merchant steering a cargo cart and some woodland animals.

Neji didn't quite focus as hard when his concentration shifted to the front of him; there was no immediate threat and he was not looking to unnecessarily waste any chakra. Because the range was a shorter distance than usual, he could see the chakra signatures of his teammates loud and clear.

Tenten was far closer to him than Lee, though, and somehow his x-ray vision hadn't managed to penetrate fully to see only her chakra network—instead, all he could see was the wildly impractical lingerie she wore beneath her clothes and fishnets. It was frilly and skimpy and lacy, hugging her firmly across her shoulder blades and against the curves of—

His gaze barely made it past her hips when he collided face-first into an oak tree. Birds and leaves scattered around him in a small explosion. The body-shaped dent in the trunk was the first thing he saw after rebounding off it.

A curse spat its way out of his mouth as he scrambled to gain traction on a branch several feet below him, tethering his feet to the thin limb with chakra. Blood rushed painfully from his nose to pool beneath the skin under his eyes.

"Neji!" Tenten called, worry sharp in her voice. He knew it was because he _never_ slipped up, and even if he had his minor mistakes, they would never be this horrendously obvious or childish. These types of antics were reserved for the likes of Lee and Naruto.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she approached him, jumping onto the adjacent branch and crouching to get a better look. There was so much innocence and clarity in her expression that he couldn't even find it in himself to wonder if she'd somehow planned this ridiculous setup. Neji was notorious among his peers for never getting flustered, _especially_ when it came to physical matters regarding the opposite sex. He felt utterly juvenile and his face ached—among other things, mostly his wounded sense of pride. Definitely not anything south of his head.

Neji nodded curtly. "I'm fine." He noticed Lee had stopped further up ahead and waved briefly to let him know the same. "We need to keep moving," Neji said gruffly when Tenten continued to stare at him, brow furrowed softly. She nodded slowly, a nonplussed frown twisting one side of her mouth, and took off to keep on their path.

He quickly followed suit, darting behind them and activating his byakugan as powerfully as he could without tapping too much into his chakra stores. A wince wrinkled his eyelids—the effects of his kekkei genkai emphasized just how badly he'd bruised his face.

It was impossible to shake the shame of his bullshit accident, not only because it was the mistake of an amateur, but because of Tenten.

For once, she hadn't even been trying to trip him up, and yet, she'd done by far the most damage of any of her challenges to date—and that wasn't accounting for the two black eyes he'd be sporting until further notice.

* * *

He was assigned to a mission accompanying some of Konoha's most skilled jounin, most of whom were his peer's fathers. Several clan representatives' services had been requested for a feat which was equal parts nobility escorting and diplomatic nonsense; Neji was the clearest choice among his family, as his uncle saw fit to let the younger Hyuuga's immense skills be known to any potential allies—or threats, for that matter.

The weeks dragged. As much as he enjoyed hearing valiant war stories and being among the strongest in his profession, Neji felt decidedly out of place the longer it all carried on. He was a tad too serious for his age, and was rational and intelligent beyond his years, but he lacked the experience, the reputation, and seniority within the ranks to fit in with the group. He wasn't taken as seriously as he was used to; he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a bit of a wakeup call. In the face of such infamous, relentlessly powerful shinobi as Nara Shikaku and Hatake Kakashi, Neji felt hardly worth his weight.

More than halfway through the mission, they chose to circle through Kusagakure on their way back. The Konoha shinobi had a night off which they chose to spend perusing some bars around the village. The beer in Grass was supposed to be some of the best, and while Neji didn't care much for alcohol, he tried it for the sake of bonding.

However, he'd hardly made it to the second round before deciding to turn in. There was something about their hearty laughter and conversation that made him feel empty. The insecurity he always suppressed was creeping out, yes, but there was another feeling, a echoing nausea that had nothing to do with the beer.

It wasn't until he was back in his hotel room that he realized what was missing: his father.

Memories of him wormed their way into Neji's subconscious whenever he felt a distinct loneliness, but this time it was because he'd been traveling with many of his acquaintances' fathers. Like his own parent, they were strong and good and willing to die to protect everyone who relied on them. It made him wonder how different he'd be if his father were still alive, if he'd be proud of Neji for the way he trained and fought and what he believed in.

Neji crawled into bed. Body aches from weeks of walking and fending off attackers surged through his limbs, and he could barely see more than gray-green evening light outside the small window of his room. The cheap mattress was solid and less comfortable than his bed roll on missions. Needless to say, it was hard to fall asleep.

He was still, his pale stare blanker than usual as it settled on the dirty window pane across the room without really seeing it. There was a faintly bitter taste at the back of his throat, partly from the dark beer he drank earlier. Mostly from an unsettling homesickness.

Being brought up in a branch clan, then watching as his father was sacrificed, _then_ becoming the most formidable shinobi in his clan always made him feel so isolated. The Hyuugas, with the exception of Hinata, were not one for the warm and fuzzies. Honestly, neither was Neji, but there were days when he craved the solidarity of teamwork and the comfort of a familiar dynamic. The only person he could remember coming close to that with was his father, but he'd been too young to hold on to many of those memories over a decade later.

The thought loomed at the back of his mind, and he knew it was coming, knew it was true before he let himself accept it. As much as he didn't want to acknowledge the extent of the implications, if he were being honest with himself, the place where he'd become the most comfortable with was his team.

Never in his life did he think he would spend his time hanging out with two overly theatrical, completely embarrassing men in spandex, but they were powerful taijutsu experts who he could now say he trusted fully.

To be fair, though, he didn't pass most of his time with them. Weirdly, it was mostly spent with Tenten.

He laid in the bed, sore stiff, and recalled just how much of his time he spent with her. When he wasn't on the Hyuuga compound, he was usually with his female teammate. Training with her was something he tended to prefer, as her attacks and weapons were unpredictable. So was she, really, when he thought about it. He never knew what to expect from her, and as horrid as it felt to admit it, he kind of…looked _forward_ to her challenges, and even her company. Tenten was quick as a whip, and because she seemed to love bringing him down a peg, he enjoyed proving her wrong.

Despite her funny games, she still absolutely respected him as a ninja, which he felt he deserved after coming this far. He respected her, too, even if it had taken much longer on his end. But it was more than that.

Unlike Lee and Gai, who only ever encouraged his participation and sung his praises after battle, Tenten saw him for more than his abilities. She was the only one who'd ever made him laugh, or feel flustered, or mildly but genuinely flattered, or anything other than pissed off.

His dad's presence wasn't the only one he lacked. He missed her.

He missed _her._

It was a long time before he finally made it to sleep, and even then, it wasn't a restful night.

* * *

A faint silhouette was stood among the group of people waiting at the Konoha gates, one with a bun settled on either side of her head. Neji felt his heartbeat pump and echo in his throat.

It had been a few weeks since his little revelation. Awkward tension radiated in his spine as he approached her. Thankfully, Tenten didn't seem to notice, even going so far as to come to him with a skip in her step.

"Took you long enough," she teased, but her voice was gentle, mostly likely because of the weary expression he could feel coloring his features. Her brown eyes were a deep russet gold in the glow of a Konoha sunset. Suddenly, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

The green of the forest surrounding the village, the mild warmth in the air, the presence of the closest person he had to a friend—he was home. It'd been nearly two months, but he was back where he belonged. It was the first time he'd ever seen Konoha that way, and it felt nice.

"We had a lot of things to take care of," Neji replied, hoping the tremor on the edge of his voice didn't betray his blasé tone. As usual, Tenten's mouth quirked in that knowing way, and he wasn't sure how to react to it. Before, it had just irritated him, but now he felt shaken in the pit of his stomach, like she'd just seen him naked.

She, fortunately, was distracted as a blush crept up the back of his neck and ears.

"I know you're probably tired," she turned back to him with a smile, "but a few of the other teams and I decided to have a picnic by the creek, and I figured I should at least _try_ to ask you this time."

From experience she was aware that he was not only introverted, but wasn't a fan of most other people their age. Or anyone, for that matter. But he was in a good mood, so he nodded and tried not to recoil spastically when she looped her arm loosely, casually around his.

They caught up as they made their way toward the training grounds. As always, he didn't divulge any mission details—everything was confidential, and even the slightest instances could turn into unwanted gossip. Tenten gave him her typical eye roll response and filled him in on some new hybrid weapons she'd crafted.

It was the regular routine, but _something_ had shifted. Whether it was because he acknowledged how much he actually liked being around her, or whether she knew something he didn't, he wasn't sure. Whatever it was, it filled him with a strange lightness that ever so slightly teetered on hysteria.

He noticed her outfit as she described her new shuriken: a dress the color of fresh peaches, the sleeves just short enough that he could see the freckles on her shoulders cascade down her arm. It was a plain frock made out of cotton instead of the rich silk kimonos the Hyuuga women wore.

Nothing about her was like any of the women he'd been raised around. Nothing. She was fierce and snarky, never wore an ounce of makeup, was not afraid to sweat and bleed and fight. And she looked nicer in a simple civilian dress than some women did in the finest outfits their country had to offer.

Neji was constantly reminded, especially once they met up with the rest of the group, that she had no ties to any clan, no social rank, and was by no means a member of any nobility. Unlike the rest of them, too, her parents weren't even ninja. It was like she'd come out of nowhere. And what scared Neji the most is that he didn't _care._

Not in the sense that he found her trivial, either, not by any means—no, it no longer mattered to him where she'd come from, or how opposite they were on the social spectrum, despite what he'd been raised to believe. And it terrified him.

.

.

After dinner, he went alone to sit by the creek, silent as he'd been since he and his teammate arrived earlier. The forest was cloaked in the cool gray of late dusk. Brisk creek water streamed lazily over his bare ankles, soothing his aching feet after walking for weeks. It soothed his nerves, too; he was so overwhelmed he could hardly think.

Coming back to Konoha felt good, but an unsettling giddy anxiety was threatening to swallow him. Maybe it was because he wasn't used to feelings outside of anger and annoyance, he pondered with a note of derision. Maybe he was just tired as hell from his mission. Maybe it was because—

"You okay?" A flash of orange-pink fluttered in his peripheral as Tenten sat next to him, stretching her bare legs and feet into the water before them. "I should have just let your wimpy ass go home. You _were_ only on a two-month mission, after all." Her nose wrinkled affably. Neji could feel a smile tug at his lips, so he pressed them into a firm line instead.

"I'm…tired. In several ways, actually." Her right pinkie was close enough to his left that he could feel the tension radiating between them, like magnets, almost. For a fleeting second, he felt compelled to divulge every insecurity he had experienced during his trip.

There was an openness in her eyes and an inviting tilt to her head that made him want to confide in her so badly he could taste the words, feel them coat his teeth.

So he told her.

He told her about his father and how he wanted to know him now, about the way Grass Country let him learn what freshly turned soil smelled like, about how he felt outranked and out of place among his own men, about how depressing the constant rain in Water was—

"—and I missed you."

There it was. It slipped out so easily, punctuating his entire monologue like he'd meant to say it all along. His hands shook and his eyes locked open in shock; he wasn't sure he'd ever said this much at once in his life.

Gently, he felt Tenten's pinkie finger rest against his, her nail barely grazing the side. Her expression was warmer than he'd ever seen it. It grounded him from where he'd been feeling out of control the entire time he spoke, his tongue faster than his mind for the first time he could remember.

"I missed you too," she said sincerely, and the world reset. His entire body sighed with relief.

* * *

One night a few weeks later, when they were all in town at the same time, they decided to meet for drinks. Neji should have known it would end in the typical Team Gai chaos.

Lee had too much to drink, meaning he'd accidentally drunk one shot and subsequently threatened to burn down half of Konoha. Gai stopped him, mumbling something in their weird secret youth language to calm him down before dragging him off. For Tenten and Neji, the experience of it necessitated another drink or ten, in a completely different bar, preferably across the village.

They ended up near the civilian district in a pub filled with half-drunk chuunin and twenty-somethings out of uniform. The wooden booths were kind of sticky and Tenten laughed when Neji grimaced, making a joke about how _bougie_ he was. Since he had no idea what that meant, he just glared at her, earning another giggle.

There wasn't much conversation to be made as they ordered their drinks. Neji wiped at his hand with a napkin to make sure no questionable substances were sticking to it when suddenly Tenten grabbed it, rubbing over his palm with her thumbs. "Mind if I read your palm?"

He could barely swallow as he nodded—he wasn't really paying attention to her question. Instead, he noticed how soft her hands were against his own, probably due to her gloves, though she had calloused fingertips. One lightly traced the line running the center of his palm and he felt the touch all the way in the pit of his stomach.

"My mom is really into this stuff," she told him with a fond smile. "I don't know how she does it. I could never believe in the kind of things she does." A pause. "Then again, she doesn't understand why I'm a ninja, so I guess we're even."

"She doesn't? Huh." Neji wondered at such an odd concept—a family with no high expectations for their child, at least not ones that pertained to fighting and death. It made sense to him that she considered them so different if her mom would be interested in such abstract things; Tenten was so concrete she could have been made of it.

"Nope," she laughed, "she always likes to read my palms or do some tarot readings before a mission though, make sure I won't die or something." Tenten shot a smile to the server who set their drinks in front of them before taking a long sip of her beer. When she set the glass down, there was a tiny line of froth that lingered around her mouth. Neji's hand twitched where hers was still holding it.

Her pinkie ran down his lifeline again and she hummed thoughtfully. "Mom would probably say _you are destined for great things,_ or some other crap." Brown eyes flickered up to meet Neji's ghostly gaze. "But I already know you are. I think you're the strongest ninja, even if your hands are softer than mine, you big priss."

The space of the booth was so small that he could feel their knees knock against each other beneath the table. There was an element in the reflection of the dim pub lights in her eyes, in the sure lift of her lips, in the slow brush of her fingers against his hand, in the delivery of her words and their proximity that snapped something in him.

Instead of denying it so vehemently this time, he realized how much easier it would have been to just admit that he _liked_ her. And as usual around Tenten, he felt like nothing short of an idiot.

Neji's hand slipped out from under hers and joined his other in grabbing her shirt and yanking her over the table toward him. Their mouths collided, and he almost missed, and he could feel the sharp end of her tooth against the corner of mouth, and both of them were too appalled to do anything, and it was awkward as hell, but it was his first kiss and therefore the greatest thing that ever happened to him. It was over after a few long seconds, and Neji slumped toward his seat, dumbfounded at himself.

He wasn't sure what he expected to see on her face, but the smug grin she usually wore was more welcome than it had ever been. Tenten gripped his shirt and pulled him back toward her, kissing him so hard around a smile that the entire bar erupted into applause.

Scratch that—his _second_ kiss was the greatest thing that ever happened to him.

* * *

.

.

.

 _i'm in love with a shooting star_

 _but she moves so fast_

 _when she falls then i'll be waiting_

 _._

a/n: i would like to thank papabay on tumblr for turning me into complete nejiten trash. her art is perfect and i owe her my life. the lyrics i used are from 'shooting stars' by bag raiders. also i promise i'm still working on my shino fic, just had to get this out first. :)


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